Politically Incorrect Books

Use of the word NIGGER (et al) in literature

Before I started my tour of the "best books" I had no idea that the word NIGGER would pop up as often as it does. Most of my life had been spent in SciFi - where race is simply not an issue, or in Science books of various types where race is only discussed in relation to genetics.

So I was a shocked to find how often it was used in the books that many considered "great". Of course, I expected to encounter the word in some books - Mark Twain used it as it was commonly used at the time; before it developed it's current pejorative connotations. To his characters it was just the word that was used and nothing more. But in other books, the word is meant to have all the pejorative connotations it carries and the author uses it for the purpose of indicating the racist nature of the characters. Since racism is a common driving element in many novels (and in human history), I guess I should not have been so surprised.

So I've decided to keep track of who used it and in what context. This page is the result....

In addition, once I started keeping track of the word nigger, I learned that this was not the only derogatory term for people of African descent. This page also keeps track of the following words:

• Nigger - A common English and American derogatory term.
• Kaffir, Kafir, Caffer - A common South African deragoatory term.
• Caffre - An older English term.

One thing that has come to mind as I discovered and created this list... what the people who would ban all books using this term would do with some of these. It seems unrealistic to try and deny a racist past (and present). You can't educate people by banning ideas - stupid as those ideas can be. Pretending something never happened doesn't keep it from happening in the future.

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Twain, Mark

The word nigger is used throughout Hick Finn. It has no negative connotation - well - not in and of itself. It was the common word for the black race at the time. Any negative connotation comes from the attachment of stereotypes to the race and not just to the word. The following is typical...

"As soon as Tom was back we cut along the path, around the garden fence, and by and by fetched up on the steep top of the hill the other side of the house. Tom said he slipped Jim's hat off of his head and hung it on a limb right over him, and Jim stirred a little, but he didn't wake. Afterwards Jim said the witches bewitched him and put him in a trance, and rode him all over the State, and then set him under the trees again, and hung his hat on a limb to show who done it. And next time Jim told it he said they rode him down to New Orleans; and, after that, every time he told it he spread it more and more, till by and by he said they rode him all over the world, and tired him most to death, and his back was all over saddle-boils. Jim was monstrous proud about it, and he got so he wouldn't hardly notice the other niggers. Niggers would come miles to hear Jim tell about it, and he was more looked up to than any nigger in that country. Strange niggers would stand with their mouths open and look him all over, same as if he was a wonder. Niggers is always talking about witches in the dark by the kitchen fire; but whenever one was talking and letting on to know all about such things, Jim would happen in and say, "Hm! What you know 'bout witches?" and that nigger was corked up and had to take a back seat. Jim always kept that five-center piece round his neck with a string, and said it was a charm the devil give to him with his own hands, and told him he could cure anybody with it and fetch witches whenever he wanted to just by saying something to it; but he never told what it was he said to it. Niggers would come from all around there and give Jim anything they had, just for a sight of that fivecenter piece; but they wouldn't touch it, because the devil had had his hands on it. Jim was most ruined for a servant, because he got stuck up on account of having seen the devil and been rode by witches. "

To Kill a Mockingbird by Lee, Harper

This book is about racism. The word HAS to be used in this book by the characters who are the racists. Take away the word, and you may as well burn the book. Still, it's hard to hear in some of the places it's used. These people, the racists, are barely human, and as proved by the end of the book, don't deserve the consideration commonly given to civilized people.

Live and Let Die by Fleming, Ian

This book is constantly talking about the character of the Negro. Not always unflatteringly, but not with much warmth either. I'd have to conclude that Ian Fleming was something of a racist. All the black dialog is as bad as you would find in Mark Twain. The only black character with any education is Mr. Big - the villain.

In all fairness, this line in this book seems to be referring to a show of some sorts as it is in quotes in the book.

'One can try,' said Leiter. 'But I know what you mean - better the frying-pan you know than the fire you don't. It isn't a bad life when it consists of sitting in a comfortable bar drinking good whiskey. How do you like this corner of the jungle?' He lened forward. 'Just listen to the couple behind you. From what I've hear they're straight out of "Nigger Heaven".'

But later in the book... When Bond has rescued Solitair from Mr. Big, her comment is...

"She smiled. 'I thought I'd get my chance one day.' She gestured toward the windows. 'You've given me a new life. I've been shut up with him and his nigger gangsters for nearly a year. This is heaven."

Heart of Darkness by Conrad, Joseph

The word is used throughout the novel. In some case it is definitely derogatory - as when some pilgrims on a boat want to make sport shooting the natives and Marlowe blows his whistle to scare them off. You get the impression that Marlowe is not a racist, but even he too uses the word now and then.

Tropic of Cancer by Miller, Henry

Used a few times here and there, but not in reference to people... more in reference to it's derogatory meaning. "treat us like niggers"... meaning poorly. Or that a place was a "nigger joint"... meaning a low-life place. Just a tad here and there, but not much.

The word "cunt" is a staple. All women are cunts one way or the other. Most are simply cunts ... no name.. no character, just a cunt for a quick fuck. It's no wonder they wanted to ban this book when it first came out. It's no wonder it was set in Paris as well, where that might work better than say, oh.. Boston.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Kesey, Ken

Actually the word of choice in this novel is coon. The word nigger doesn't appear until a fight scene in the showers, and then only once, and as a provocation.

Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky, Feodor

This is a translation from the Russian, so naturally one has to blame the translator rather then the author, but still, one has to imagine that the translator chose the word for it's negative connotations.

Chapter 4

"It's a bitter pill to spend one's life a governess in the provinces for two hundred rubles, but I know she would rather be a nigger on a plantation or a Lett with a German master than degrade her soul, and her moral dignity, by binding herself forever to a man whom she does not respect, and with whom she has nothing in common -- for her own advantage."

Lord Jim by Conrad, Joseph

Chapter 8

"'These things happen only once to a man and... Ah! well! When I got on the bridge at last the beggars were getting one of the boats off the chocks. A boat! I was running up the ladder when a heavy blow fell on my shoulder, just missing my head. It didn't stop me, and the chief engineer- they had got him out of his bunk by then- raised the boat-stretcher again. Somehow I had no mind to be surprised at anything. All this seemed natural- and awful- and awful. I dodged that miserable maniac, lifted him off the deck as though he had been a little child, and he started whispering in my arms: "Don't! don't! I thought you were one of them niggers." I flung him away, he skidded along the bridge and knocked the legs from under the little chap- the second. The skipper, busy about the boat, looked round and came at me head down, growling like a wild beast. I flinched no more than a stone. I was as solid standing there as this,' he tapped lightly with his knuckles the wall beside his chair. 'It was as though I had heard it all, seen it all, gone through it all twenty times already. I wasn't afraid of them. I drew back my fist and he stopped short, muttering-

Invisible Man by Ellison, Ralph

This book is about a black man, raised in the south who moves to New York. It is commonly acknowledged to be one of the greatest books written in the 20th century. The word nigger comes up frequently and is used by characters both white and black. Without it, this book would not be what it is.

It must be noted... the author is black.

South Sea Tales by London, Jack

This was passed on to me from another source. I have yet to read the book

"I've seen a few who claimed they understood niggers," Captain Woodward retorted, "and I always took notice that they were the first to be kai-kai'd (eaten). Look at the missionaries in New Guinea and the New Hebrides--the martyr isle of Erromanga and all the rest. Look at the Austrian expedition that was cut to pieces in the Solomons, in the bush of Guadalcanar. And look at the traders themselves, with a score of years' experience, making their brag that no nigger would ever get them, and whose heads to this day are ornamenting the rafters of the canoe houses. There was old Johnny Simons--twenty-six years on the raw edges of Melanesia, swore he knew the niggers like a book and that they'd never do for him, and he passed out at Marovo Lagoon, New Georgia, had his head sawed off by a black Mary (woman) and an old nigger with only one leg, having left the other leg in the mouth of a shark while diving for dynamited fish. There was Billy Watts, horrible reputation as a nigger killer, a man to scare the devil. I remember lying at Cape Little, New Ireland you know, when the niggers stole half a case of trade-tobacco--cost him about three dollars and a half. In retaliation he turned out, shot six niggers, smashed up their war canoes and burned two villages. And it was at Cape Little, four years afterward, that he was jumped along with fifty Buku boys he had with him fishing bˆche-de-mer. In five minutes they were all dead, with the exception of three boys who got away in a canoe. Don't talk to me about understanding the nigger. The white man's mission is to farm the world, and it's a big enough job cut out for him. What time has he got left to understand niggers anyway?"

Ulysses by Joyce, James

If you find the next sample difficult to read, you are not alone. I was unable to finish this book. The prose is interesting, sometimes amazing, but increadibly dense as this sample shows.
Episode 8

Sardines on the shelves. Almost taste them by looking. Sandwich? Ham and his descendants mustered and bred there. Potted meats. What is home without Plumtree's potted meat? Incomplete. What a stupid ad! Under the obituary notices they stuck it. All up a plumtree Dignam's potted meat. Cannibals would with lemon and rice. White missionary too salty. Like pickled pork. Expect the chief consumes the parts of honour. Ought to be tough from exercise. His wives in a row to watch the effect. There was a right royal old nigger. Who ate or something the somethings of the reverend Mr MacTrigger. With it an abode of bliss. Lord knows what concoction. Cauls mouldy tripes windpipes faked and minced up. Puzzle find the meat. Kosher. No meat and milk together. Hygiene that was what they call now. Yom Kippur fast spring cleaning of inside. Peace and war depend on some fellow's digestion. Religions. Christmas turkeys and geese. Slaughter of innocents. Eat, drink and be merry. Then casual wards full after. Heads bandaged. Cheese digests all but itself. Mighty cheese.

The Magnificent Ambersons by Tarkington, Booth

Usage appears once in the novel.

Then, by George! she says Amber sons bought their dog, and you can't get one without paying for it: they cost from fifty to a hundred dollars up! Old Aleck wanted to know if I ever heard of anybody buyin' a dog before, because, of course, even a Newfoundland or a setter you can usually get somebody to give you one. He says he saw some sense in payin' a nigger a dime, or even a quarter, to drown a dog for you, but to pay out fifty dollars and maybe more--well, sir, he like to choked himself to death, right there in my office! Of course everybody realizes that Major Amber son is a fine business man, but what with throwin' money around for dogs, and every which and what, some think all this style's bound to break him up, if his family don't quit!"

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Hurston, Zora Neale

This book was written by an African American author, so I guess she's allowed to use the word in a way white people are not. However, it's used in the same pejorative manner when one group of lighter skin negros want to refer to the darker skinned people they hate. One character in particular suffers from this prejudice and has no trouble letting it show. Ms. Hurston wanted to use the word in the same hateful way... and to show that hate transcends skin color.

Naked Lunch by Burroughs, William

The word appears in this book once or twice in the parts I read... but the rest of the book is so bad.. so purposely offensive that you hardly notice the "N" word...

Tobacco Road by Caldwell, Erskine

This book is about a family of white share croppers. They are ignorant, poor, selfish, sinful; about as low as you can get on the humanity scale, but they are still better than black folk. At one point one of the characters, Dude, kills a black man by running into his wagon with a car. He just leaves the body to the side of the road and thinks nothing of it. Here is Dude's description of the aftermath of the accident.

"It was that nigger," Dude said. "If he hadn't been asleep on the wagon it wouldn't have happened at all. He was plumb asleep til it woke him up and threw him out in the ditch."

"He didn't get hurt much, did he?" Jeeter asked.

"I don't know about that," Dude said. "When we drove off again, he was still lying in the ditch. The wagon turned over on him and mashed him. His eyes was wide open all the time, but I couldn't make him say nothing. He looked like he was dead."

"Niggers will get killed. Looks like there ain't no way to stop it."

--- and that's the sum total of their concern.

The Moviegoer by Percy, Walker

The word appears ONCE in this book set in New Orleans in the 1950's. One would think that it would appear more often in this setting, but the author is obviously NOT a racist. The word negro is used consistently and, though they play no important role in the book, black people are treated with respect as typically hard working and honest fellow citizens.

Ellen Foster by Gibbons, Kaye

This amazing little book is from the perspective of a 9 year old girl who, through a series of very hard knocks, learns so much about life that, at age 11, she has more wisdom than most of the adults around her. One of the things she learns, through her friendship with a black girl her same age, is that racism is stupid, and that no matter how hard her life has been, her black friend has it rougher than her - only for the reason that she is black.

The word is used by racists in the book, but Ellen herself, though she has some prejudice to start, is never a racist. This book was a wonderful read.

There are 8 instances of the word appearing in this book:
In the first scene Ellen is describing her grandmother berating her father at her mother's funeral:

Nobody wants to be the one that stops her. She calls him a nigger and trash so long and loud she gets horse. Just churning hate and nerve with forty years of my mama on fire under her. She may not sit through this service.
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Amen and my mama's mama is up and out the door. She does not yell anything back. No nigger or trash. Just out.
And my daddy will fool himself into thinking that is all. She is gone. Good. I do not have to pay for her girl.
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Now get it right. It was she had rather some real niggers thave my mama's things than any of us that dring and carry on like trash. That is hard to figure out because you know I do not drink
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--- Ellen is sent to work in the field with the black workers. She doesn't know what to do so her Grandmother says:
Ask a nigger what to do is what she said before she drove off. Five or six people were already chopping and they were far down the rows and not noticing me.
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Yeah old Ellen runs up and down the road with her little nigger friend they might say.
Yeah old Ellen is always bothering so-and-so to give her a ride home from the grocery store.
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--- Ellen's Grandmother is berating Ellen for the death of Ellen's mother.
Why you little bitch. You set up in that house like the world owed you a living. In cahoots with your damn daddy. I know all that went on. You laid up all in that house with your daddy's buddies. I'm surprised you don't have some little nigger baby hanging off your titty. But you left before I could get the both of you at one pop. You and your daddy let her take them pills or more than likely drove her to it.
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--- Ellen is talking about having a boyfriend... Dora just said ha! I didn't know you had a boyfriend.
Well I do!
I've never seen you with one at school. I can see everything you do at recess and lunchtime. I've never seen you talking to anybody hardly except that little nigger girl. I don't believe you.
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She lives in the red brinck house between the nigger church and the Porter's store.
That's way on the other side of the school!
Well that's exactly where she lives. I don't make up stories she said to me proud.

The Studs Lonigan Trilogy by Farrell, James T.

The story takes place in Chicago in the early part of the 20th century. The characters are unremittedly bigoted. They hate the way the niggers are moving into their neighborhood. Every stereo-typical thing that has ever been said, is said in this book. (Of course, these characters are a bunch of low lifes, so what can you really expect.) They are also unrelentingly anti-semitic. It's no wonder the holocaust happened if this is at all representative of the attitudes of people even in this country. And finally, the characters are sexists as well. Women are treated like dirt, they are either good catholic girls or whores.. there is no in between. And if there is even a hint of lesbianism, well, the girl deserves to die.

As a peek into the minds of these types of people... this book is a winner. But be prepared for the smell.

The Thin Man by Hammett, Dashiell

This takes place in the 1920's, so its pretty much expected that the word is going to appear in this book.

The Ginger Man by Donleavy, J.P.

The main character is an American living in Ireland and later, London. The is completely reprehensible, so its no wonder that the word would come up from him, though only once or twice.

The Crying of Lot 49 by Pynchon, Thomas

Appears once in this book. Don't believe it was necessary as the book is supposedly post-modern and could have easily avoided this. Ah well.

Beloved by Morrison, Toni

The word is used frequently in the book, though how one could write this book without it is the question being begged by those who would censor the book on this account. It takes place before, during, and after the Civil War and everything is through the eyes of slaves. Pretty much in any dealing with "whitefolk" the term comes up. Hell, perhaps the term "whitefolk" should also be considered offensive when used in this way. In any case here are some samples..

- “..my niggers is men every one of em."

- "Ain’t no nigger men. Not if you scared, they ain't. But if you a man yourself, you’ll want your niggers to be men too. I wouldn’t have no nigger men round my wife.”

Lord of the Flies by Golding, William

Shortly before his demise in chapter 11, Piggy says: ‘Which is better—to be a pack of painted niggers like you are, or to be sensible like Ralph is?’

(Thanks to Tom H. who pointed this out.)

Uncle Tom's Cabin by Stowe, Harriet Beecher

This book about slavery, written before the Civil War, could not have been written without the use of the word. Indeed, Ms. Stowe only reflects the dialect in use at the time by everyone - Master and Slave alike. Political correctness didn't exist back then. Racism was the accepted norm - races had characteristics and there were many more races then than now. This book helped to abolish slavery AND slowly end racism (a road we are still traveling). It would be non-sensical to ban this book for being a reflection of its times.

Wide Sargasso Sea by Rhys, Jean

This book takes place in the carribean islands where the races mixed rather freely and the phrase "white nigger" was used to refer to a class of people many looked down on. Odd that this would appear in a prequel to Jane Eyre.

Cry the Beloved Country by Paton, Alan

This touching book about the development of apartheid South Africa, written in the late 1940's contains the word "nigger" one time - in the phrase where someone denies being a nigger hater. However, the word "kaffir" appears several times. This may have been more acceptable then, but now is on the same level as the word nigger in the United States - a derogatory slang for black person.

Kim by Kipling, Rudyard

This is an amazing book about a orphaned white boy (sahib) that is has grown up in the streets of Lahore, India during the British rule there. He is so steeped in the culture of India, and so dark from his exposure to the sun, that no one knows he is actually Caucasian, and assume him to be a Hindu child.

The book is fantastic in the portrait is paints of Indian life, religion, culture and castes. There is so much in here about the Indian way of life during that period that you can't help but come away with some sense of the magic of that place and time. India was the original multi-cultural country, if ever there was one, as it occupies the perfect place between east, west and Africa.

Of course, when cultures clash prejudice happens. The word nigger appears several times in this book, which is not remarkable as caste and religious prejudice are more explored here than racial issues.

Here are the instances.

"What was you bukkin' to that nigger about?", said the drummer-boy when Kim returned to the veranda. 'I was watch-in you.'
'I was only talking' to him.'
'You talk the same as a nigger, don't you?'
'No-ah! No-ah! I onlee speak a little. What shall we do now?'
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Kim knew and despised them all long ago. The boy resented his silence and lack of interest by beating him, as was only natural. He did not care for any of the bazars which were in bounds. He styled all natives 'niggers'; yet servants and sweepers called him abominable names to his face, and, misled by their deferential attitude, he never understood. This somewhat consoled Kim for the beatings.
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He returned alone, weeping, with news that the young O'Hara, to whom he had been doing noting in particular, had hailed a scarlet-beared nigger on horseback; that nigger had then and there laid into him with a peculiarly adhesive quiret, picked up young O'Hara, and borne him off at full gallop.
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-- In this scene Kim is being disguised to make his skin darker
'That is true. Hold thy face still while I dab on the juice.'
'Not too black, Naikan. I would not appear to har as a hubshi (nigger).'
'Oh, love makes nought of these things. And how old is she?'
'Twelve years, I think,' said the shameless Kim. 'Spread it also on the breast. It may be her father will tear my clothes off me and if I am piebald -' he laughed.

The Sheltering Sky by Bowles, Paul

Another book where the word appears just once. The book takes place in and around the Sahara desert. There are some comments that are anti-arab by characters who are pretty obviously racist. The author, however, seems to show a sensitivity to the area and its culture, having lived there for a portion of his life around 1933. The word is used to refer to arab children rather than black people. The use is as follows:

Room eleven was Mrs. Lyle's, longer but no less bare than the others, and directly off the entrance. While she drank her tea, she kept rising from the bed where everyone was sitting for lack of chairs, going to the window and crying, "Mosh! Mosh!" into the street.

Presently Port could no longer contains his curiosity. "What is that strange word you're calling out the window, Mrs. Lyle?"

"I'm driving those thieving little niggers away from my car."

"But what are you saying to them? Ist it Arabic?"

"It's French," she said, "and it means get out."

"I see. Do they understand it?"

"They'd jolly well better. ...

A Farewell to Arms by Hemingway, Ernest